30gal display cube frag tank system build

[Domi]

Hi,

 

After having this 8 gallon tank for half a year:

I decided to upgrade.

 

I wanted to have something a little more stable, space for frags and some more tech.

So I planned out a new system and gave this to my tank-builder. It will be a cube with 45x50x40 cm (~18x19x16") that is connected to a sump 40x45x40 cm (~16x17x16") that will also serve as a frag tank with an ATO reservoir in the back. Below the sump there is some space for Dosing pumps and electronics.
 

 

The scape will move in the next tank as it is now, with the same live stock. I like the scape and just want it to have some more space.
I will probably add some corals and some fish. Right now I have mostly sps and lps corals one fire shrimp, one cleaner shrimp and a tail splot blenny called Fridolin. Also in future the focus will be on (sps-) corals
My goal is to have more water volume since keeping alk stable was always difficult since consumption was changing a lot on a day to day basis making it cumbersome with the dosing pump. The goal is that I can leave the tank alone for at least one week without the need for somebody to take care of it.
All in all the volume should be around 4 times more than before hopefully making it more stable.

That's the equipment I will use:
1x Juwel 100W heater
1x Dennerle 50W heater
1x AI Prime HD
1x Tunze turbelle nanostream electronic
1x Aqua medic DC runner evo
1x Aqua medic reef doser evo 4
1x Tunze osmolator nano
1x Cheap Dennerle LED light for frag tank
1x DIY aquarium controller
1x PC fan controlled by aquarium controller


I won't use a skimmer as I am always having troubles with too low nutrients, this gives me more space for coral frags in the sump. I plan to run activated carbon from time to time as I observed that sometimes growth would stall which I was able to solve with activated carbon, I assume it is because of toxins from the corals causing problems in such little volume. 

The overflow tubing will be 25mm and the return tubing 20mm. I will hard-plumb everything and also try to fit a small manifold to be able to also run a small DIY carbon reactor and whatever else I might want to run from just the one return pump. I opted for a rather powerful return pump for this tank to get some flow out of it and to run it on a slow level hoping that it will be more quiet and last longer than maxing out a smaller pump.

Most of the parts I used already in the small tank, like for example my DIY aquarium controller based on an raspberry pi:

 

The dosing system will be ATI nano essentials, I am using this right now and I am quite happy with it. It has two parts so I have two free channels left on the dosing pump in case I want to add something else.

One thing I am thinking about at the moment is how to make the shelf below the sump save/waterproof/humidity-proof enough to have all the electronics in there. Any suggestions?
Additionally I am wondering if I should run the frag tank light at night to keep pH more stable, or does this only make sense with refugiums?

As I am changing my job I have one month of holidays before I start again in January, so my plan is to finish the majority of this build before Christmas and have it run already stable enough so I can visit my parents back in Austria for a couple of days.
I will update as I go along.

Cheers,
Dominik

 

 

[Domi]

Hi,

Unfortunately documenting my build didn't go as I planned, so after more than a year, here is the current result:

Things are running smoothly, once a week glass cleaning, filter wool exchange and Alk testing. Every third week I fill up the ATO reservoir and adjust salinity as well as test Ca, PO4 and NO3. The tank really needs a lot of nutrients, I am feeding a lot and add 0.03mg/l PO4 per day to keep PO4 at 0.03. I don't run a skimmer, so I assume that the corals are taking up a lot plus bacteria. Other than that I am dosing ATI Essentials Pro and my alkalinity consumption is about 1 dKH/day. 
My fish stock is at the moment:
1x Chromis
1x Purple Firefish
1x Tail Spot Blenny

1x Rainford's Goby

That's all I do on the tank in months. Quite boring, but it seems like the corals like it boring...
So here are the pictures:

 

The whole System:

 

The display tank:

 

The frag tank / sump:

 

Cheers,

Domi

 

[This guy is extra salty]

that's pretty sweet  

[Domi]

Hi all,

 

For friends of moving pictures I made a video showing the tank and setup:

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCDEjrUJnfk&feature=youtu.be

 

Enjoy!

 

Cheers,

Dominik

[DNR88]

The YT-link doesn't seem to work..

 

But that's a seriously cool looking tank you have there! I like the way the sps seem to grow up towards the surface. 😁👍

[Domi]

On 4/16/2020 at 10:08 PM, DNR88 said:

The YT-link doesn't seem to work..

 

But that's a seriously cool looking tank you have there! I like the way the sps seem to grow up towards the surface. 😁👍

Hi,

Thanks for letting me know, here is a working link: